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I made the decision to convert my alleged 1950 Dunelt to fixed gear a couple of weeks ago .

Running a 48 X 18 fixed gear set up at the moment which so far on testing has seemed just about right. It is still running on 27″ wheels and center pull calipers .

Over the years this machine has run various set ups .

It was used quite a bit in 2018 with a 1 X 6 speed set up .

It originally came to me quite a few years ago hand painted and I used it in that guise for quite a while . Before stripping off all the components and having it powder coated a nice bright orange colour .

Once it was powder coated I sold the frameset and then 3 years ago bought it back still unbuilt with all the masking tape still in place .

I am looking forward to getting some winter miles in on this machine .

I picked up a much adapted Holdsworth last week as it’s previous elderly owner had finally hung up his cycling jersey .

He had swapped the drop bars for a set of flats , replaced the original crankset for an mtb inspired triple item along with matching Shimano sis thumb operated gear shifters and mechanisms .

The only change I have made was to replace the steel rimmed wheels for a set of alloy rimmed ones with new tyres . I also cleaned and lubed the chain as it looked like it needed doing and fitted one of my selle smp saddles .

The only other thing I have done is to use it for about 60 miles in its first week it has done a mixture of daily commutes and a nice Saturday morning pleasure ride .

I picked up this very lightly used Ribble a few weeks back . The previous owner claimed to have only used it for about 100 miles .

As you can see it had originally been built with flat bars and brifters that only allowed 12 of the 14 gears to be selected due to a mismatch of components , I tried to sort this but couldn’t find those extra pair of gears .

Whilst trying it out a couple of other issues became apparent , it’s front caliper Allen key bolt was only just reaching the caliper threads and the headset spacer arrangement wasn’t tensioning the headset bearings .

Once this pair of issues was sorted I decided to swap the flat bars for a set of drops. First job was to replace the original rear wheel and fit a new 8 speed cassette and a set of NOS Claris sti units .

I had initially fitted a riser stem but soon swapped that out for a flat one . and started to cable up the gears and brakes .

After a bit of setting up it was time for some test miles to see what it felt like . All was good so next job is to fit the matching fr wheel and to sort out the squeaky fr mudguard .

Then once I am happy with everything I can finish it off with some new bar tape .

It has seen a degree of abuse and neglect since it rolled out of Decathlon .

Overall it wasn’t in too bad a condition and just needed a refresh .

First job was to lose the odd and incorrect wheels and replace them with a better set I had lying around .

Next job was to replace the chain and cassette as the chain registered over 75% wear .

I than gave it some miles to find any other faults . First one that came to light was that after anything more than a mile the saddle would start to move on its clamp , next up was to replace the brake pads as they were getting a bit thin , and then there was a bit of tidying up of the headset spacer arrangement by losing the lower clamp and fitting a couple of wider washers rather that the multiple narrow ones .

So after a week of commuting and making some adjustments I thought it was time to give it a proper ride .

Only a total of 35 miles but they were all very nice ones which the bike behaved well and did everything it was asked to do without any issues .

The pair of us love walking along seaside promenades and we don’t worry about the weather .

I bet most people come back with bags of rock and kiss me quick hats .

If the above statement is true then i am not one of those people because i bought back two rather different pieces of steel instead .

The blue one is what i believe to be a W P Newton frame with track style rear dropouts with the added bonus of brake holes front & rear making this a very useable frame indeed , the other one is a Paul Donohue Cougar made with Reynolds 853 with stunning paintwork .